Argos' defence not surprised by surging Stamps

Toronto Argonauts head coach Scott Milanovich, right, talks with Chad Owens during practice Friday, November 23, 2012 in Toronto. The Argos will face the Calgary Stampeders in the 100th CFL Grey Cup Sunday.

Photograph by: Sean Kilpatrick
, Canadian Press

TORONTO --Kevin Huntley got an early clue that the Calgary Stampeders might be a threat come late November.

It happened when the Toronto Argonauts veteran defensive lineman was watching the Stamps play host to the Saskatchewan Roughriders back on July 19 in Week 4, when Calgary found itself down 17 points with less than six minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

"Look at the Saskatchewan game," pointed out Huntley on Friday after the Argos went through their final full practice in preparation for Sunday's 100th Grey Cup showdown with the Stamps at the Rogers Centre. "They were down, and as you're watching the game, you're thinking there's no way in the world they can win this game. What to do they do? They pull it out somehow."

On Sunday, the Argos will be looking to figure out a way to stop a team that has seemed bulletproof at times this year.

Even with injury after injury thrown at them, the Stamps have proved resilient, and have found a way to be playing their best football of the season when it counts -- a far cry from the opening few weeks when the Stamps lost twice to the Argos in a six-week span (part of current five-game losing slide to the Boatmen).

"I think they're playing with more confidence, and (quarterback Kevin) Glenn is the key, he's playing as lot better," said Argos' defensive lineman Ronald Flemons. "And of course, (Jon) Cornish has always been good; he's been amazing, one of the best backs I've seen up here. I mean, getting 150 yards in a game is hard, and he's done it a few times this year. And their O-line is underrated. They're not big, flashy guys like B.C.'s (Jovan) Olafioye or Montreal's (Josh) Bourke. But they have a good, solid line."

"The only thing I can say is that they just came together," added Toronto middle linebacker (and former Stamp) Robert McCune. "We've been looking at some stuff that they did at the beginning of the year, and I know from being over there with their great coaching staff, they've been taking care of the things they needed to correct and get on top of. They've always been a high-character team, so for them, it was just a matter of coming together to get the job done."

Still, knowing that is one thing -- seeing it on display is another, and last week's impressive win over the high-powered B.C. Lions made a statement -- not just the victory, but particularly the way Calgary's offence dictated the game at the line of scrimmage against a Lions' front seven that was among the best in the league until being exposed.

"It didn't surprise me," insisted Flemons. "Calgary won 12 regular-season games for a reason. Hey, it's the CFL -- any given day, any team can win, so I wasn't totally surprised by it. They're on a roll, they're feeling good."

So how do you stop that good feeling? Even though the Argos have been spotty against the run this year, they believe that their best path to success is keeping Cornish in check.

"If you can stop Cornish, yeah, you have a good chance of winning -- of course you do," said Flemons. "But you can't let Kevin Glenn pass for 400 yards, right? But Cornish is the key. They're going to try to run Cornish, and that's kind of been our Achilles heel this year, people running the ball against us. So we fully expect them to come out and try to run on us. But if we don't give up the big plays to (Maurice) Price or Nik Lewis, we should be OK."

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